40% of UK games companies believe in a F2P future, what do you think of free to play?
via PCGamer

A UKIE research survey of UK games companies has found that more than 40% believe that free-to-play games will be an important part of the industry going forwards. GamesIndustry International report that 30% disagreed or weren't convinced by the idea. It’s unclear what happened to the other 30% so let’s assume they were ambivalent/eating a taco/watching a passing squirrel out of the window.

The survey hopes to gain a snapshot of the most popular business models in the industry at the moment. UKIE say that the “final report will have the full analysis of the data to see if the confidence in free to play is justified and what the confidence levels are like in other existing or emerging business models.” I’d be more interested to know what the most popular business models are among gamers. Wait, that’s YOU. Let’s talk.

Even within the free-to-play bracket, there’s a tremendous amount of variation in terms of what you pay for when, and whether the items/XP boosts you’re buying are aesthetic upgrades, a boost to speed up the grind mill or objects that affect your in-game performance, like new weapons. I reckon a lack of clarity up-front around what you’ll likely end up having to pay for contributes to a general mistrust of free-to-play games for some. Then there’s the dreaded spectre of “pay-to-win,” of course.

So, do you play free to play games? Which ones are good? Which ones suck? Are you put right off the whole idea? If so, why?

Well I'm glad they made Team Fortress 2 F2P, even though you can't do much without spending $5 in the Store. But honestly, I would rather pay for some small in-game purchase then have to buy the whole game.

However, F2P is only for some games. For instance, the CoD series wouldn't work as F2P, nor would games such as WOW. It's all situational.

O hell no, I'd admit it though I liked World of Clank, League of Legions but number one issue behind those games, you have to throw money into them to progress and it always seem to be much more then the game really worth so I hope not